Erica "Magical Realism" D.'s Profile

I will preface my review with two statements:

I had been really looking forward to trying Lola Gaspar, as my boyfriend's aunt comes here a lot, and some of my friends and fellow yelpers also had great experiences.

When I finally came to Lola's, it was on the First Saturday Art Walk event, so everything was packed.

The reality? Not so much with the Lola Gaspar. My dining companions ordered calamari and the salsa flight as appetizers. All 4 of us ordered drinks. And water. And then sat for 20-30 minutes. The drinks came- no waters- and I asked for an order of tortillas and butter. And then we sat for at least 20 more minutes. The water finally showed up, along with the calamari and the tortillas. We ate them all. Flagged down the waitress and asked where the salsa flight was. She explained that the kitchen is like *holds up fingers in a small square*. OK- but how much preparation goes into putting some salsa into ramekins and dumping some chips on a plate...?

One hour or more after ordering, the food shows up. STILL no salsa flight. Again, we are told that the kitchen is small and it has two sides, and the salsa flight is coming from a different side..or something...The weird thing is that someone in our party ordered the b-side burrito, and it came with...wait for it...chips and salsa. Hm...

Salsa flight arrives. It's pretty good, but it was $3 for something that is usually free and comes without asking. No refills.

Bill was also pretty high for what was ordered:

Chile Rellano (which was just..weird...I though. It had the super hot jalapeno salsa, cranberries, goat cheese, and chicken. Something about those flavors together wasn't working out for me).
Vegi Flatbread (bf loved it)
Tortillas and butter ( i think you got like...2 tortillas and a little cup of butter and a little cup of salsa for $3)
2 beers
Caipirinha (which was amazing and yummy, btw)

The boy and I have a game where we try to guess the bill before we look at it. I guessed $28. He laughed. I guessed $31. He told me to add at least $10 and my mouth dropped open. We paid close to $50 including tax and tip.

The waitress did end up comping the salsa flight.

Overall, I was disappointed. Maybe I should come back during the happy hour on a slower day and see if that's any  better.

Boo Robeks! I went back today and they still have a crappy handwritten note on the door that says "Closed for Vacation".

Each bite of falafel is like a little bite of heaven. I don't know what they put into those things, but I can't stop thinking about them. Everything about Open Ses is perfect. Except the long wait, but how can you fault a place for being busy when they are the best restaurant on 2nd St?

The sandwich artistes in this particular location are my favorite. Some Subways, the toppings are all thrown around and nothing looks clean (I'm talking to you, Subway on Redondo in Long Beach), but not this place. Everything is all sparkling clean and they lovingly arrange the veggies on your sandwich one by one. Love.
Normally, I would not be reviewing a Subway, but this location is just exemplary, so I wanted to give a shout out.

True story- I was doing that master cleanse diet, where you are supposed to drink a mixture of lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper, and that's all folks for 10 days. I made it to around midnight on day seven and broke down practically in tears and begged my boyfriend to take me somewhere for french toast. He took me to Harbor House, and it was aaaahmaaaaazing! (said Huell Howser style)
If God and His Angels had come down to personally fart powdered sugar onto my meal, I don't think it could have been any tastier.

I have been back several times since and all of the food is just good yummy diner food. Definitely sit inside- the patio area is not as nice. The lighting is weird and yellow and the chairs are plastic lawn type chairs. I sat back there late at night and the vibe was weird. Inside there are big wooden built in booths and vintage movie posters and the feeling is very cozy. You can tell this place has been around forever.

I mean Shore House is a staple in anyone's diet, right? When you live in Long Beach? Everything here is totally decent and reasonably priced. Huge portions, etc etc. Service is pretty good, etc etc.

My favorite thing to order is the crispy chicken ceasar salad with ranch instead of ceasar. You get a piece of garlic bread, and a choice of soup. I always get the clam chowder and give it to the boyfriend, and then we split an order of curly fries, and voila! We are both FULL for under $20. I usually even have salad left over to take home. Where it sits in the fridge, because I have a problem with leftovers.

Shore House is pretty unavoidable, so I can't imagine that anyone is actually reading this review to try it out for the first time. ;)

I don't know man...I think I am too old for dive bars. I'm getting cranky in my old age. I'm  not impressed by the cheapness of your PBR or the diversity of your jukebox when I feel like I am going to contract syphilis from touching the walls, which are covered in 30 year old red shag carpet. Plus, I'm just not a cheap PBR, random ironic so cool it's bad so bad it's cool hipster type of girl anyway. If you are, you would probably adore this place. But yeah...we were there for last call and the lights got turned on...I think I'm going to have nightmares. The walls...omg... You can still be a hipster dive bar and not have disease on your walls, I would think.

And the bathroom...the bathroom! I stepped into the stall and was confounded by the long chain with a loop on the end that was hanging from the door. I looked around and didn't see anything to hook it onto or any other mechanism to keep the door fastened. THEN it dawned on me that I was supposed to hold the chain whilst on the toilet to hold the door shut. They couldn't spare $1 at Ace Hardware (which is right down the street!) for a latch for the door?

I do have to say, the drinks were dirt cheap. We got 4 drinks for $14 or something like that. The bartender was some LBC cool dude in his MCD shirt and millions of tattoos. We didn't get any of the sexy chick bartenders in the 90's bondage wear mentioned in the other reviews. Maybe that's only on weekends.

I would give 2.5 stars, or 4 out of 10 stars on my fantasy upgraded yelp rating system, but since that's not possible, I'm sticking with 2.

I have taken my car here a few times for various and sundry repairs. Tony has always been very straightforward and very sweet to me. He even drove me home once in his own car so I wouldn't have to walk.
I feel like he and his staff have always been very honest to me, but I also feel that the prices are a bit on the high side. I don't have a lot of frame of reference, though. Maybe cars are just expensive.

Ambrosia is oookkkaaayyy...it's no Open Ses, but I can walk to it and I can't walk to Open Ses. I WISH I could walk to Open Ses, because that would mean that I loved in Belmont Shore, but I digress...

I would give Ambrosia 3.5 stars to account for the walkability, but I can only give 3 or 4 and I am not feeling 4 stars worth of happy. The service is slow. Not bad, as in, nothing has ever been wrong, or distasteful, or cold, no one has ever been rude to me, etc. It just takes forever to get service and then for the food to arrive, even when the place appears to be dead.

The first time I went, my falafel was dry and kind of hard, but the second time I went it was yummy. It's a log of falafel to fit inside the pita sandwich, which I though was kind of funny. I was calling it a fa-log-fel.

I like all of the birds hoping around, but yeaahh...I went with Jeff V and there was bird poop on one of the menus. Yuck.

You can tell Tami runs a tight ship at her nail salon. The place is very clean. I was also given tea and a gossip rag upon landing in one of her spa chairs. The prices are very reasonable. Not super dirt cheap, but not high either, and Tami and the girls always do a great job. They use OPI nail polish and Dermalogica products for the skin care services. Tami has told me that she prides herself on using the best products and not cutting corners.

I have also taken my boyfriend here to get his eyebrows done. Tami is a trip. He was concerned that she would make his eyebrows too "done" looking. She assured him that she wouldn't give him "gay eyebrows". She said she does a lot of eyebrows for gay guys, but she will make my straight boyfriend a sexy bitch. I think she said sexy bitch about 457485 times. She definitely followed through. You couldn't even tell he had anything done, except that he looked more well-groomed when she was finished. Every time I go in there without him, she asks about my sexy bitch boyfriend. Love her.

I used to be able to walk to Tami's, which was just another plus. Now that I live farther away, I think I will still frequent her salon.